VCF Day 2 Operations Planner

Day 2 VCF operations are where most outages happen — cluster expansions go wrong, certificate rotations fail mid-flight, password changes break SSO. This tool walks through each common Day 2 task as a structured runbook with prerequisites, ordered steps, validation checkpoints, and rollback notes.

When to use this tool

Use this tool when you need to:

• Run any common Day 2 VCF operation — the runbooks cover the operations that go wrong most often.
• Hand off operational tasks to a team member who hasn't done that specific operation before.
• Document the change with a structured trail of completed steps + your inline notes.
• Plan rollback ahead of time — each runbook ends with a rollback section if reversal is needed.
• Train new VCF operators — runbooks make implicit knowledge explicit.

How it works

Each runbook follows the same five-section pattern:

1. Prerequisites — what must be true before starting (host on HCL, capacity headroom, maintenance window, etc.)
2. Pre-flight validation — commands/checks to run that confirm the prerequisites are actually met
3. Execution steps — the actual operation, broken into ordered steps with UI navigation, expected results, and validation between steps
4. Post-validation — confirm the operation completed successfully (cluster healthy, services up, no alerts)
5. Rollback — what to do if it goes wrong, when rollback is even possible

The runbook persists in your browser — you can pause mid-execution, close the tab, and resume later.

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Pick a runbook

Available runbooks:

• Expand Cluster — add 1+ hosts to an existing cluster
• Add Workload Domain — create a new WLD on existing management infra
• Certificate Rotation — rotate certs on vCenter, SDDC Manager, NSX Managers, ESXi hosts
• Password Rotation — rotate root, admin, SSO, NSX passwords
• vSAN Expansion — add capacity (more disks, more disk groups, or more hosts)
• Add NSX Segment — create new overlay or VLAN-backed segment
• Replace a Failed Host — RMA an ESXi host and bring its replacement online

2. Read prerequisites carefully

Skipping prerequisites is the #1 cause of Day 2 operation failures. Examples:

• Cluster expansion: new host on HCL, IP/DNS pre-configured, host commissioned, sufficient license capacity
• Cert rotation: backup taken, new certs from CA in correct format, downtime window approved
• Password rotation: SDDC Manager backup verified restorable, all dependent integrations identified

3. Run pre-flight validation

Before each runbook executes, run the validation commands. Examples:

• For host expansion: esxcli system version get to confirm ESXi version matches cluster
• For cert rotation: openssl x509 -in newcert.pem -text to verify SAN entries

4. Walk through execution steps

Each step shows what to do, what to expect, how long it typically takes, and what can go wrong. Tick each step complete before moving to the next.

5. Run post-validation

Operation looks complete? Don't walk away yet. Post-validation confirms: clusters healthy in vCenter, SDDC Manager green, no critical alerts, backup of new state captured, affected workloads still functional.

6. Rollback if needed

Each runbook ends with rollback. Some operations (cluster expansion) are easy to roll back; others (cert rotation, password rotation mid-flight) are not. Knowing rollback feasibility informs your maintenance window length.

7. Export the completed runbook

Once done, export the runbook with all your notes, completion timestamps, and audit trail. Drop in your CMDB or change record.

Examples

Common mistakes

Related tools

Tools that pair well with VCF Day 2 Operations Planner:

FAQ